Soon after the credits rolled on Cloverfield, Matt Reeves’ found footage monster movie that stomped into theaters almost a decade ago, moviegoers were left to mull over a whole host of mind-boggling questions. Where did the alien creature come from? Did it survive the Hammer Down protocol? And just what on Earth does all this have to do with sushi?

And though many of those questions and queries remain unanswered to this day, director Dan Trachtenberg and J.J. Abrams crafted a peculiar,...